Phonoatomic effect

The precise way of how adsorbed atoms on a cold surface are ejected when the surface is warmed up, is still a difficult physical problem. A considrable progress in understanding this change of state is achieved with the discovery of the phonoatomic effect, a kind of elementary quantum-mechanical desorption process. It has been shown that atoms, adsorbed on a solid surface, could be ejected by phonons, i.e sound or thermal energy quanta. The results and the implications of this work, which was performed at the California Institute of Technology, on gas desorption are exposed and the deep analogy between this effect and the well known photoelectric effect is underlined. 8 figs